Deep well screen



April 1944- H. o. WILLIAMS ET AL 2,346,885

- DEEP WELL SCREEN Original Filed April 15, 1940 2 Sheds-Sheet l iiii i i uililiiiiilllli H ALBERT A. JENS April 1944- H. o. WILLIAMS ET AL 2,346,835

DEEP WELL SCREEN Original Filed April 15, 1940 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 v l6 gwuv/nlim HOWARD o. WILLIAMS ALBERT A. JENS an /um Patented Apr. 18, 1944 2,346,885 DEEP WELL sonEEN Howard 0. Williams, Minneapolis, aniAlbert A. Jens, St. Paul, Minn., assignorsto-Edward-E. y a

Johnson, Incorporated, St. Paul, .Minn.

Application April 15, 1940, serial whichis a division of 222,410, August 1, 1938. plication September 18, 1942, Serial'Nm 459,06

Our invention relates to a deepwell screen and ha's'for its object to provide a deep well screen of very strong construction wherein the strainer surface isheld upon and substantially spaced from drain-age slots of suitable width between each pair thereof and welded to and integrated with a supporting member rigidly held upon the pipe base.

the strainer surface proper has to have additional' support. A perforated pipe base furnishes said support, but limitations of construction in the matter of the holes or perforations through the pipe base make necessary widely spaced holes and small flow capacity through the holes. Hence the interior of the pipe base. ered it is practicable to form spacing member of wire roug ly triangular in cross-section which is laid helically upon the pipe base made substantially integral therewith by 5 being heated as laid and so be shrunk upon the pipe base. In doing this the triangular wire has its flat base adjacent the pipe base which results, after shrinking, in a very firm grip and substantial union between the pipe base and the helically wound wire. This wire will be laid in helical coils, the several pairs of coils being spaced apart distances-several times the diameter of the holes. Strainer elements will be applied longitudinally to the helical coils of the supporting and this will result in the formation of helically disposed channels between the strainer surface and the pipe base which permits a maximum strainer surface to be available for the inflow of liquid.

It is a principal object of our invention, therefore, to provide a deep well screen having an specification,"

' our invention in one of application Serial-1 No;

Divided and this apnels inside: the strainer-surface leading to: the holesthroughthe pipebase. i

It isa fl1rthen0bject ofour invention to form the; helically laid supporting and spacing member I of roughly triangular cross-section and to have the same secured upon the pipe base with'its broad-flat top in engagement therewith;

It isa further object of our invention to form the: longitudinal strainer elements of roughly triangular cross-sectional shape and: to cause the narrowed inturned portions thereof-i to be welded to the narrowed outturned .porti'ons'of the hell cally coiled supporting and spacing members at every: crossing point thereof so asvto bring the outer surfaces of thestrainerelementsin a com mon cylindrical plane and'to'form drainage slots which expand inwardly fromthat cylindrical surfaceto their opening into the 'channels' formed between pairs ofhelical coils of the supporting and'spacing members.

- This application is directly a division of appli-' cation Serial No. 329,749; filed'April 15, 1940, which has matured into Patent No. 2,312,458,

dated March 2, 1943, and said application Serial No. 329,749is a division of application Serial No; 222,410 filed Augustl, 1938. 1 I

The full objects and advantages Of our inven- I'n'ents for producing the above-defined valuable and highly advantageous results will be particularly pointed out-in the claims.

In the drawings illustratin an application of its forms: i

Fig. "l is a full plan View in vertical position of a well screen embodying our invention, with some parts broken-away andin' section.

Fig. 2 is a transverse screen taken on line 22 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary plan View in horizontal position, showing the and spacin members to the screen forming elements.

Fig. 4 is a sectional view through a wall of the screen taken on line 44 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary sectional view taken on line 5-5 of Fig. 4.

As illustrated, the primary or base member of a well screen is the pipe base In. This is a heavy customary manner sectional view of the well relation of the supporting I 2 oil industry. The pipe base In is provided with a multiplicity of apertures or holes ll preferably round or circular, which extend in longitudinal and circumferential rows preferably staggered in position in succeedingrows. These holes are of considerable 'diamete'r'but are necessarily spaced apart distances such that unperforated metal between any pair of holes will in usual practice be more than double the diameter of the holes.

In the production of our well screen a supporting and spacing member I! is positioned in helical coils upon the pipe base Hi. This member as shown at iii of Fig. 4, is roughly triangular in cross-section and has its base It contacting the outer surface or the pipe base "I. In practice it is laid helically upon the base pipe being very considerably heated in advance of laying so that subsequent cooling of the coils after being laid will shrink the same upon the outer surface of the pipe base so as to make the helical coils of supporting member l2 substantially integral with the pipe base, and as clearly shown, particularly in Figs. 1, 3 and 4, the successive coils of the supporting and spacing member l2 are spaced apart distances several times the diameter of the holes ll.

In the production of the screen a multiplicity of longitudinal strainer elements l5 are laid upon and secured to the coils of the supporting and pacing member l2. A clearly indicated at l6 of Figs. 2 and 5, these longitudinal elements are roughly triangular in cross-section. They have their narrowed edges laid and welded to the helical coils of supporting and spacing member l2 at every crossing point thereof.- As shown at H and I8 of Fig. 5, thetwo narrowed edges of the supporting and spacing member I! and the longitudinal screen forming elements ii are welded together and sunk one within the other so as to have the outer flat surfaces is of the strainer elements fall in a common cylindrical plane as clearly shown in Fig. 2. There are thus formed between adjacent .pairs of strainer elements l5, inwardly expanding slots 20. The narrowest portion of said slots will be at the tops of the longitudinal elements and they will expand inwardly from that point to their'extreme inner ends. The width of the slotsshown in the drawings is, of course, merely for purposes of illustration, and these slots at their narrowest point may be made narrower or wider asthe conditions of use may require.

Referring particularly to Figs. 1 and 4, it will be noted that free channels 2| of a breadth several times the diameter of the holes II will be formed between the outside surface of the pipe base it and the inner margins of the screen surface formed by the screen forming elements I5.

Each of the channels 2| extending from end to end of the well screen opens to the inside of the pipe base [0 through a large number of the holes or openings ll. Thus the liquid which flows through the slots 20 has an extensive area along channels 2| to reach the several holes l l and substantially the full areaof screen surface is available to permit inflow of liquid.

The advantages of our invention are evident from and inherent in the description heretofore given. One of the very great advantages is, of course, that an extremely strong well screen is provided adapted to resist the severe stresses and strains which result from setting the well screen to great depths as in oil wells.

A further advantage of our screen is that the outer surface is made up entirely of longitudinal elements very rigidly held by welding union to the spacing and supporting helical coils of member 12 and offering no obstruction in setting, indeed, beingparticularly easy for moving down into setting position since there are no transverse projections or slots.

A further advantage resides in the fact'that the screening slots at the outer edges may be made extremely narrow and yet that the very large area of screening surface available 1 for drainage through the helical channels to the holes in the pipe base will permit a full flow through said holes regardless of the fact that the drainage slots may be extremely narrow. This is of very high importance in connection with bodies of oil located in very fine silt or sand a sometimes happens.

We claim:

A deep well screen comprising an internal integral pipe member formed with a multiplicity of spaced holes extending through the walls thereof, a supporting member of roughly triangular cross-sectional shape having its fiat top face rigidly held on said pipe base in a helix so as to be substantially integral therewith, the coils of the helix being spaced apart greater distances than the diameters of the holes, and a multiplicity of longitudinal strainer elements eachof roughly triangular shape having the narrowed portions thereof welded to the coils of the supporting member at every crossing point and being spaced apart at adjacent edges of the flat top walls to form inwardly expanding drainage slots of suitable outside width, whereby channels are formed between the inner limits of the strainer elements and the outer surface of the pipe base for leading to the holes in the pipe base liquid which passes through the inwardly expanding slots of the screening surface. HOWARD O. WILLIAMS. ALBERT A. JENS. 

